1/24/25 - The Mo Egger Radio Show - Mo Egger

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
On Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 2 (00:03):
You know what, and they should pay me a few
extra bucks for saying this. I listen to that podcast Wednesday,
Hell's Today, Today's Friday. That's a good podcast, Bobby Boneses,
as we say in the business, a talented on air performer,
unlike the person you're listening to at this moment, who

(00:25):
is well the exact opposite whatever, the exact opposite of
talented on air performers. That's what you get for me. Hi,
that's a hell of an advertisement for listening to this show.
I'm moegar. This is ESPN fifteen thirty. Thank you for listening.
Hopefully your weekend is off to a great start and
you're having an awesome Friday afternoon. We have a lot

(00:46):
to get to. You're gonna hear. You're gonna hear a
lot of Al Golden today. Al Golden, who is gonna
be officially introduced as the Bengals defensive coordinator on Monday.
You're gonna hear from Big Al coming up just a
little bit later on he speaking about Golden. Did you
watch the game on Monday night? Oh? I know if
you're an Ohio State fan, you did, and I know

(01:08):
if you're a Notre Dame fan, you did. But if
you're a Bengals fan, and you might be a Bengals
fan and a Notre Dame fan, or a Bengals fan
and an Ohio State fan, there's obviously a lot of crossover.
But if you're a Bengals fan, did you watch the
game on Monday night National Championship game won by Ohio
State over Notre Dame. If so, I got a couple
of questions for you. We'll get to that a little

(01:29):
bit later. On loaded college basketball weekend. Big opportunities for
UC and Xavier and everybody else in the area. You know,
it's a weekend of opportunity, including for the hottest team
in the area of the Miami RedHawks, who have a
first place showdown in the MAC. More on that, as
I often say a little bit later on show preview
video is up on I'm just gonna call it twitter,

(01:51):
can I I've wrestled with this now for like I
think over a year. Well, it's ex just normal people
call it twitter. I'm calling it Twitter. And if you
want to tell Elon musk on me, go ahead anyway.
The show preview is available on on Twitter at Moeger.

(02:12):
Thanks to our friends at Emory Federal Credit Union, your
credit union with heart since nineteen thirty nine. Go to
Emery FCU dot org. If you have internet access, you
can go to ESPN dot com go to the MLB section.
And I like to print stuff, so I'm holding it

(02:32):
up for really nobody, in particular Buster Onney, friend of
the show. Buster Olney accomplished famous, well known, and I'm
sure highly compensated. MLB writer slash Insider for ESPN dot
com has listed the five most improved MLB teams for
twenty twenty five the five most improved MLB teams for

(02:54):
this upcoming season. Number one on his list the Cincinnati
Reds Now. Unlike some local outlets, I am not going
to give away Buster's content. Go read it for yourself
if you want, at ESPN dot com. But I'll read
the first paragraph. The Reds had the worst record in

(03:15):
the majors in one run decisions last year fifteen and
twenty eight, and they are likely to get better merely
by moving to the mean. But Terry Francona and Nick Krawl,
the Reds president of Baseball Ops, have more specific improvements
in mind and He goes on to talk about Gavin
Lux and Brady Singer, and he has the Reds as
the most improved team in baseball this year. One other

(03:40):
passage that I'll include here, he writes, according to the
base running metric used by Fangrafts, the Reds with the
second best base running team in the majors, behind the Brewers.
But Crawl and Francona noted that there were instances when
the team redlined from aggressiveness into recklessness and they aim
to change this in the hope that the team runs
in a fewer outs the number one. And by the way,

(04:01):
I was surprised when I saw that, because I looked
it up at some point shortly after the season and
I saw the exact same thing that according to that metric,
which can be kind of Convolutedfangrafts dot Com, Red's with
the second best base running team in baseball last year.
It didn't feel like it in real time, right, It
didn't feel like it in real time as you were

(04:21):
watching last season unfold that they were anywhere close to
the best base running team in baseball last year. We
knew they were aggressive, which I think we all want.
And you know that with aggressiveness, is gonna come moments
where you do run into outs. But it felt like
at times last year that they just they ran the
bases like they didn't know the rules, like they thought
that they had at times an unlimited supply of outs.
So that was interesting to me, and I hope that

(04:42):
gets cleaned up. And I do think there's something to
the belief that, all right, they were so bad in
one run games last year that it's invariably gonna swing
the other way from year to year, which is often
what happens. Let's discuss this here for a second most
improved team. Now, this is not a list of the

(05:06):
five best teams. It's not a list of the five
teams most likely to win ninety five or more games.
It's not the five teams you would bet on to
win the World Series. It's most improved you can improve.
When I was in high school, my freshman year, the

(05:28):
only time I ever got a D, I got a
D in algebra. And I wasn't a great student in
grade school and in junior high school, but I didn't
get any ds. But algebra was, and frankly still is
just puzzling to me. And it wasn't because of lack
of effort, Like I just I didn't get it. Like
there are certain things if you're a kid, if you're

(05:49):
a student, like it just the light bulb never comes on.
And in algebra as a freshman, it didn't come on.
So I got a D. Right, I got a D.
And then the next marking period, as we called it
back then maybe we still do, I got a C
plus and you know, I remember like showing it to
my parents, like, hey, I got a C plus and

(06:11):
they were like, that's improvement. It's not where you need
to be, but it's improvement. And then the third marketing period,
I gotta D again, but I improved. Improvement didn't mean
I was suddenly an a student that I was like,
you know, this math whiz, it was itight, he's getting better,
he's improved. It's improvement. It's improvement. It's better, it's better.
It's not where it needs to be. So it's not

(06:33):
five best teams, it's five most improved. I don't know
if they're the most improved team in baseball. I have
not done a list, to be honest with you, I
haven't sat down to look at what most teams in
the sport have done. And let's face it, it's been
a quiet offseason. I mean, and what the Dodgers are doing,
and Juan Soto being signed by the Mets and a
handful of other moves, but it's it's not been a

(06:55):
very size It's not been an offseason filled with seismic moves.
So I am the first to admit I saw this
at one ten this afternoon, and I haven't had time
to jot down my list of the five most improved teams.
And let's be honest, even if I do have time
to do that, I ain't gonna go through that exercise.
So do I do I think? Do we think they're

(07:15):
the most improved team in baseball this year? I don't know.
But are they improved? Actually? Yes?

Speaker 3 (07:24):
Now?

Speaker 2 (07:25):
Are they improved enough to win ninety games? I don't
think so. Maybe you agree or disagree five point three, seven, four, nine,
fifteen thirty. Are they improved enough that we should consider
them the favorite in the National League Central? I don't
think so. Are they improved enough that I am booking

(07:47):
my travel which I wouldn't be doing anyway because you
don't know where they play? But am I planning? I'll
watching the Rids in the playoffs this year. No, not really,
But are they improved? I think they are improved. I
think they are improved. Have they made a lot of
improvements from outside? For my money? Not enough? Am I

(08:07):
going to spend the rest of the show answering my
own questions? God, let's hope not. Look, I think there's
something to this. You could talk about injuries last year
and acknowledge that they're not an excuse. They're not. I
don't look at last season and go golly gee. The
only reason the Reds disappointed is last year with the injuries.
And man, look, everybody deals with injuries. The Brewers had

(08:29):
more injuries than the Reds last year. Like at one
point their entire starting staff got hurt and they ran
away with the National League Central You have to figure
out a way to overcome injuries. You have to plan
for injuries, you have to build depth. The Reds did
not do that last year. Once guys started to get hurt,
really at the end of spring training, they were badly exposed,
badly exposed. Then it's one of the reasons why the

(08:50):
season sunk, and so health is not guaranteed. And if
you're thinking, well, this year. If McLain and Cees can
each play in one hundred and sixty two games, and
if all the starting pitchers can never miss a start,
this team's gonna be fine. You're right about that. But
chances are those things aren't going to happen. You're gonna
deal with injury. That said, at the outset of the season,

(09:14):
it does feel like they have a very good, strong chance,
a very strong chance of having all the players, the
main players who were hurt last year healthy to start
the season this year. That is improvement. Matt McClain being
healthy when he wasn't healthy at all last year, that
is improvement. And Christian and Karnassi on Strand being healthy

(09:36):
when he wasn't healthy at all last year, that is improvement.
And Jamer Candelario being healthy when he wasn't at the
end of the season last year. That is improvement. And
Hunter Green and Andrew Abbott and Nick Lottolo all being
healthy when they didn't finish the season healthy. That is improvement.

(09:58):
That is an improvement enough on its own to say, well,
don't need to do anything else this off season.

Speaker 4 (10:04):
No.

Speaker 2 (10:05):
I also think there's something about experience, like this was
good last year until everybody got hurt. The Red starting
pitchers gained really valuable experience last season and built on it,
and they had a good starting staff last season. That's
what made last year so frustrating, right, like they wasted

(10:25):
good starting pitching. Experience helps you improve, I think automatically improve,
just with the accumulation of time and experience. They also
have a guy who I think is maybe better equipped
to do the one thing many of us wondered about
David Bell not doing last year. It's been a theme
of the off season accountability.

Speaker 3 (10:47):
Now.

Speaker 2 (10:47):
Look, man, it's easy to say in January, you know,
when Ellie Dela Cruz runs into an out, or when
somebody on the team commits a brain fart, we're going
to hold them accountable. Are you going to do that?
In April? Are you gonna do that? In August? Are
you gonna do that? During the season. It's easy to
say you're gonna do something in January. Are you gonna
do it? You know? When, when when it's time to

(11:08):
practically but practically do something, we will see. But Terry
Francone is a Hall of Fame manager. I don't know
how many winds he's worth, but I do think he
is coming here, and he has talked about this often publicly,
understanding that part of what he has to do here
is hold players more accountable, ensure that mistakes don't get repeated,

(11:34):
and if that happens, this team is improved. I believe
those things now. I also believe the front office hasn't
done enough with the team to fix its biggest issue,
which is a lack of pop an offense that is
I don't think at league average. I think it's below
I think the strategy this offseason and I'm pro Gavin

(11:56):
Lux and I'm pro Brady Singer. I still think there's
a little bit too much hope and not enough activity,
like a little bit too much like, hey, if these
things go well, we're fine, when I would rather see
them go Hey, if these things go well, fine, But
also we're gonna add something from outside to enhance what
we hope goes well. If that makes sense, and maybe

(12:17):
it doesn't. But are they improved? Yeah, yeah, I do
from the end of the season last year. Yes, And
some of this is quite obvious. I do think it
kind of gets washed away by the frustration of them
not addressing what, again, for most of us, is their
biggest issue. They need an outfield bad and it doesn't
look like they're gonna go get one. And let's face it,

(12:40):
if they do, it's probably not gonna be a guy
who's gonna make a huge impact. And I'm frustrated by
the relative lack of activity, and I'm frustrated by continuing
to hear discussions about the budget, and I get frustrated hearing, well,
you know what, we don't want to mortgage the future,
like there's gonna be a point in time we hope
where what you have justifies going for it. And maybe

(13:01):
we're not there, but we're closer to there than we
were two years ago. But are they improved? Yes? And
could I be convinced that right now they're the most
improved team from what they were at the end of
last season. Yeah, I'm I'm certainly open minded to that,
and Buster does a good job of outlining all that
in his piece at ESPN dot com. Your comments are welcome,

(13:25):
as always. A five point three seven four nine fifteen thirty.
We're pretty wide open today. Five point three seven four
nine fifteen thirty is our number. Eight six six seven
oh two three seven seven six two. You could also
send a tweet on Twitter at Moeger thanks to Delta Dental.
Delta Dental is building healthy, smart, vibrant communities for all
good at Delta Dental, oage dot com. Did you watch

(13:49):
Monday Night? Are you concerned about al Golden because of
Monday Night? I don't think you should be. I'll explain
why next on ESPN fifteen.

Speaker 1 (13:59):
Thirty Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 5 (14:05):
Traffic from the UC Health Traffic Center at U see help.
You'll find comprehensive care that's so personal it makes your
best tomorrow possible. That's foundless care for better outcomes. Expect
more at UCHealth dot com. Northbound seventy five, it's an accident.
This on the exit ramp to Sharon Road, northbound seventy one.
A disabled vehicle blocks off the right lane. That's after

(14:28):
Reading Road. And on North Bend Road, it's an injury
accident north of Kirby Avenue. I met e'salk with traffic.

Speaker 2 (14:37):
This the good red Stuff is week. Chris Valaka was awesome.
That's one of the best interviews we've been a part
of in a while. And not because I was like awesome,
because Chris was great. He's the new Reds hitting coach.
If you missed that, you should listen to it for
free on the iHeartRadio app. Also, Jeff Brandley on the
show yesterday and we had with us in studio, camcoll

(14:58):
You're the twenty twenty four Futures Game MVP, Chase Burns,
the number two overall pick in the draft, and Amelia Pegan,
who is hoping for I think we could characterize it
as a bounce back season, fun guy to talk to.
If you missed those conversations, well, the good news for
you is we hit record and we put the audio
on the internet and you can listen to it on

(15:19):
the iHeartRadio app, or you could go to my page
at ESPN fifteen thirty dot com. You're gonna hear Al
Golden with Dan Horde coming up in just about twenty
five minutes, a very good conversation between the new defensive
coordinator of the Bengals and the team's play by play voice.
I've gotten some variation of this, and on some level,

(15:39):
I guess to be expected, because I think there's a
lot of folks who watched Monday night's game with a
closer intensity. Because the Bengals, we're gonna hire Al Golden. Obviously,
if you're an Ohio State fan, you watched. If you're
a Notre Dame fan, you watched, and you might have
just watched because you love college football. But I'm sure
there are folks who are paying closer attention to Al

(16:02):
Golden's defense because he was going to be coaching their
favorite teams defense at the same time. I've I've heard
a couple of times on this show and seen on
social media folks who have said, I don't know, man,
Monday was not a good advertisement for Al Golden. Boy.
I tell you what, I I'm having second thoughts because

(16:22):
of what I watched on Monday night from Al Golden's defense.
I'm paraphrasing, but I've I'm sure you have too, and
maybe you feel that way. Excuse me, but I've seen
and heard some version of that, including from folks who
have called this show man, I don't know. Did you
watch Monday? Did that look like a defense you want
to see the Bengals play. Let me ask you this.

(16:44):
If you watched Monday night, which I did, and I
will admit like I paid a little bit closer attention
to Notre Dame defensively because of Al Golden, knowing the
likelihood that he was coming to Cincinnati. Did they look
did Al's defense I call hour on a first name basis.
Did Al's defense look like it was unprepared? You know,

(17:08):
if you watch football long enough, you know what an
unprepared team looks like. We've certainly said that about some
of Zach Taylor's teams, specifically early in the season. Did
Notre Dame's defense on Monday look unprepared? Did the players
look like they weren't on the same page as each other?

(17:30):
Were they running schemes that strategically made no sense for
me at least? And you are welcome to tell me
if you disagree for me at least. The answers to
those questions are no. I didn't think they look unprepared.

(17:50):
I didn't see a defense that looked like a bunch
of dudes who are not on the same page. I
didn't see Notre Dame doing things, doing things schematically that
didn't make any sense. I saw a group of players
who had plays made against him by an offense that

(18:10):
had better guys. Will Howard made some terrific throws. Jeremiah
Smith did Jeremiah Smith things the Buckeyes ran the ball.
Their offensive line was terrific. They didn't allow any sacks
like that. That performance on Monday night, for me, from
a Notre Dame defensive perspective, was more just OSU's offense
is terrific. They averaged six point eight yards per play

(18:33):
all season long, fourth best in the country, seven point
two on Monday. Are there individual plays where you could
have said, man, I wish they would have done this defensively? Sure,
But as a general rule, I watched that game on Monday.
I didn't really think as the game went on much
about the coaching. I didn't think a ton about Chip Kelly.
I didn't think a ton about Al Golden. I thought

(18:55):
Ohio State has dudes. Notre Dame defensively doesn't have enough.
They can't keep up. I didn't watch that game thinking
coaching is the reason why this is going the way
it's going. OSU offensively was a buzzsaw. OSU all season
long was very good on that side of the football.
Sometimes maybe not aggressive enough. I didn't see a defense

(19:19):
I would have been troubled. Had I seen a defense
that looked unprepared, I would have been troubled had I
seen a defense that you know, look like a lot
of guys don't know where they're supposed to be. There's
communication mistakes, there's assignment errs. Not everybody's on the same page.
I would have been concerned had I watched that game
and thought, like, why is AL doing this? Why is

(19:42):
this their defensive scheme? Clearly doing something else is a
better answer for what OSU was doing. I just saw
an Ohio State team that had better guys, and that's
gonna happen sometime, And it happens in the NFL. Like
you know, dudes make plays. I just it happens. Dudes
make plays. Sometimes a very well put together, well coached

(20:04):
defense is powerless against a good quarterback or an elite playmaker.
I mean, we've watched it with the Bengals offensively right
where Joe Burrow has done some really awesome things against
against teams that had good defenses and in plays that
were well defended. So I guess there's two questions mainly here.
Number One, if you went into Monday night, if you're

(20:26):
Zach Taylor and you go into Monday night thinking cool,
my new DC is going to coach this game, then
we're gonna hire him. Was there anything about that performance
that should have given you pause, that should have made
you undo what you thought, unthink what you thought going
in number two? Did you watch that game on Monday?
Think and think to yourself, God, you know what, Really
the problem here is coaching. I thought the problem for

(20:49):
Notre Dame was Ohio State's offensive players are really, really,
really good and Notre Dame didn't have the personnel to
keep up. And by the way, if that happens with
the Bengals and their defensive person can't keep up, then
the results are going to look similar to Monday night.
I didn't watch Monday thinking coaching was the issue. You
can tell me if you did. Is you watch that

(21:09):
game five one, three, seven, four, nine, fifteen thirty you'll
hear al Golden Coming up at three forty five. We'll
look at the weekend ahead in college basketball. Frustrating week,
frustrating week for UC for Xavior, A frustrating Saturday, last
week for Kentucky, A frustrating last couple of weeks for NKU.
Frustration is the key word. I got some questions about

(21:33):
nil and what's next to U see we'll get them
answered next On ESPN fifteen thirty. He's in eight minutes.
It's twenty five away from four. This is the ESPN
fifteen to thirty. You often hear people refer to the
quote new landscape in college athletics and uh pop folks talk,
I think a lot of times about things like NIL,

(21:54):
and I'm not sure a lot of us understand how
NIL works or how it's going to work moving forward.
And so our next guest is a guy who can
help answer some of those questions and address some of
those things. His name is Anthony Defino. He has been
on this show before. Deputy eight, Deputy a d and

(22:15):
in charge of external relations at the University of Cincinnati.
You have heard a lot about since the Sports Partners
at the University of Cincinnati, a group that is going
to be very important in a lot of those areas
moving forward, and they made their first big hire. Anthony's
here to talk about that as well. It's good to
have I think with the last time we had you
was right before the football opener. It's been a while.

Speaker 6 (22:36):
What's going on, mo, We have a lot going on,
so certainly always appreciate having some conversations with you.

Speaker 3 (22:44):
And you know it was a while ago since we.

Speaker 6 (22:47):
Connected, We got a lot of updates, but we are
very happy to launch since these Sports Partners here and
our new hires, Ryan Holmes, He's going to be joined
us from the Cincinnati Bengals, has a lot of NFL
national sales experience, and we are thrilled with a lot
of the things going on within the department.

Speaker 2 (23:05):
All right, let's talk about since E Sports Partners specifically
for the uninitiated, what is it.

Speaker 6 (23:12):
It essentially is our sponsorship arm. It's a group that's
going to go out into the community, regional areas and
national and go and bring in great partners that align
with the University of Cincinnati and our flooded department. You
think of some great partners we already have on board,
the Krogers of the world. We're just going to continue

(23:33):
to find brands that want to engage with us and
engage our fan base and really help us focus in
on what we have to do best, which is provide
our four hundred plus student athletes with a great experience
on campus and look at things beyond their time on
campus as well. So we're thrilled and we're pumped to
have this thing moving in.

Speaker 3 (23:53):
The right direction.

Speaker 2 (23:54):
We often hear and you heard me mention. We often
hear or refer to the quote changing landscape of of
college athletics. If I had a dime for every time
I've heard or used that phrase, I could fund this
initiative myself. But the reality is, look, nil is a
has been a reality now for a while. And you know,
for my for my money, no pun intended a good one. Obviously,

(24:17):
the landscape is going to continue to evolve and shift
and you're going to have to come up with a
lot of money to pay student athletes. So give us
an idea of of of the sort of initiatives and
sort of ideas you're going to have to come up
with in order to make that reality.

Speaker 6 (24:33):
Yeah, you know, we're somewhat unique in the collegiate landscape
where you know, they're not employees. Are student athletes are
not employees, but they're getting compensated for the name, image
and likeness, which is at I l I think at
the end of the day, focusing in on that these
are eighteen to twenty three year old kids across the
board who do a lot for our university, and they

(24:54):
do a lot for our community, and they're embedded here.
Certainly when you see large tell vision contracts or things
like that happening, you know, giving them what they're calling
revenue share in some sense right now. But they're here
for four or five years and then they go out
in their community, they get jobs in the community, and
they have a lifelong impact.

Speaker 3 (25:15):
So I think as you look at NIL and some
of the things that.

Speaker 6 (25:18):
We need to do, we have to create some unique
fan experiences. We have to give them engagement opportunities like
on radio broadcasts like this. They're they're gonna be out
in commercials for us, you know, whether or not they
you know, look at look at other opportunities on their own.
But from a university standpoint, we want to put UH

(25:39):
these very bright kids and positions to learn entrepreneurship and
and utilize their brand for for their own their own good.

Speaker 3 (25:47):
And our good.

Speaker 6 (25:48):
So I think we're we're excited to find partners that
that want to help us and align with that and
want to use some of our student athletes and their
celebrity UH to enhance everyone's brand. But also from an
NIL standpoint, really clearing it up that you know, not
everyone in college athletics loves an I l but we
better embrace it because it's it's not going backwards. We're

(26:11):
not going back to the amateur status in a sense,
or they're not going to get paid. But if you
take the mindset of embracing it and then really engaging
the community on where these these brands. I look at
it as we have four hundred plus brands now to manage.
In terms of four hundred plus student athletes, there's going
to be a student athlete that will engage at some

(26:32):
point with a brand in this community that makes sense,
and it's a line.

Speaker 2 (26:37):
What is the big the biggest public misconception about NIL.

Speaker 6 (26:44):
I think they think it's paid for play. You know,
we're not paying our athletes to play games. We're we're
utilizing their name, image and likeness in terms of their
brand value. And essentially, now when it comes to your July first,
when the House case passes or is affirmed, the schools

(27:05):
will have some capacity to continue to leverage individual athletes brands.
So I think when you look at misconceptions as though
they're employees or oh they have done nothing to deserve
this money, or what are they doing, what you're not
seeing a lot of the time is the amount of
work that they do in the community and how local

(27:28):
some of the things that they're engaging really is. So
when when you see some of the kids in the community,
grammar school on up, there's a lot of engagement happening
with our athletes because of NIL. So it is again
it's a community engagement piece that makes a lot of
sense and helps helps our kids, our student athletes obtaining

(27:51):
jobs and work with brands and almost like an internship
in some ways. And you know, you have an engineering
student on the swimming team, they go and find a
job because they did a five hundred dollars NIL deal.

Speaker 3 (28:03):
With a company.

Speaker 6 (28:05):
That's that's awesome.

Speaker 3 (28:07):
I mean, that's what this is all about.

Speaker 2 (28:09):
My understanding is And you talk about using a third party,
like since the sports partners, this hasn't been done all
that frequently, but it is being done at Clemson. What
sort of results are they getting?

Speaker 6 (28:21):
Yeah, certainly so a lot of for the education piece
of it. You know, the third parties out there are
companies like lear Fields and Placewise, So majority of your
schools will will operate with those. We we're electing to
bring our rights in house, so Clemston has their rights
in house. Arizona State, Arizona Rutgers. Very few schools out

(28:46):
there are doing this that take complete ownership of their
own sponsorship team and their rights. So we're on the
cutting edge. It's a little bit of blue ocean for us.

Speaker 3 (28:58):
You know.

Speaker 6 (28:58):
Clemston certainly did this about three years ago. The fruits
of their later on this is significant, and I think
you're going to see a lot more schools doing that,
But for the most part, there's less than six schools
around the country doing this. I'm proud to be one
of those schools in Cincinnati. It brings a lot more
to the community in my opinion, where people spending local

(29:23):
dollars will stay local, we will reinvest those dollars locally.
And when we're talking about a business play, there's no
better business play than supporting small businesses, supporting our community
and supporting our school and growing this region to what
it is and what it should be, which is the
best that I've ever.

Speaker 2 (29:41):
Been in since the sports partners. The key word there
is partners. So if there's an interested partner out there,
how do they get more involved?

Speaker 6 (29:51):
Yeah, I appreciate you asking that. Sorry, our new hire
Ryan Holmes will be here on Monday. Starts Monday. We're
excited for him to start. He's going to take complete
ownership of this thing. He's going to be the lead.
I think currently, if anyone's interested over the next three days,
they can email me reach out to me my emails
Casino af at UC dot ed U. But go on

(30:16):
our website, go bearcats dot com, check our staff directory.
Ryan's contact information will be up there. He's building out
a team. He's building out the best team in the business,
and they will find the value for our partners and
make sure they are solving their business needs throughout all this.
So we're very excited for Ryan to get here, and

(30:37):
we're very excited to go onto the market and find
the right brand partners for us.

Speaker 2 (30:44):
Awesome stuff. I appreciate giving me some time. Anthony will
do it again.

Speaker 6 (30:47):
Thanks so much, absolutely, thank you, moth ticker.

Speaker 2 (30:50):
Anytime you got it. Anthony Defino at the University of
Cincinnati since E Sports Partners. They begin their operations on
July first. It is quarter to four. You're gonna hear
Al Golden with the Golden Voice of the Bengals see
what I did there next on ESPN fifteen.

Speaker 1 (31:10):
Thirty Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty Traffic from.

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(31:38):
after Sharon wrote another accident. This one has been moved
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Speaker 2 (31:46):
This report is sponsored by rappid Hey, Alexa, what's the
latest on the NBA?

Speaker 1 (31:51):
Getting ESPN fifteen thirty from iHeartRadio.

Speaker 2 (31:56):
Eight away from four. This is ESPN fifteen thirty. I
just coincidentally got a text from Dan Board because we're
about to steal something from his podcast, The Bengals Booth Podcast.
Dan just asked me if the Skyline Chili Greater's ice
Cream collaboration is the highlight of young Crosley's life. My

(32:17):
daughter Crosley, who has two loves in life, Skyline Chili
and Greater's ice Cream, and they released the new flavor
today and I went down to the Skyline on Fourth
and Sycamore to try it, and it is awesome. She
hasn't had it yet, but by seven forty five tonight,
my guess is the answer is going to be yes.

(32:37):
This is the highlight of my life because it combines
two things she loves more than anything and two things
I love more than anything as well. So we are
fired up and it's good. It's really good. It tastes
like pumpkin pie, and I do love pumpkin pie. So
I saw Dan's number, like, I saw his name pop
up on my phone, and I'm like, he's going to
be mad that we're playing part of it. We're promoting

(32:59):
his pot. Not that it's post podcast needs any promotion.
It's awesome. It's Dan horde Bengals Booth podcast. But texting
me about ice cream? All right? Speaking of Dan, Hordy
does host the Bengals Booth podcast, which is available, as
we say where you get your podcasts, and it's a
must listen. And had a chance Dan did to a
chat with Al Golden, the Bengals defensive coordinator. This entire

(33:22):
conversation is terrific. A lot of folks wondering what are
the core principles of an Al Golden Coach defense. Here's
Al answering that question.

Speaker 4 (33:31):
Well, it all starts with the acronym best, right, So
number one ball disruption. Put a premium on that. Our
number one job is to support our quarterback. And people
are like, you know, what does that mean as a
defensive coordinator, We got to get him the ball. So
that's our number one job. Give him opportunities, the e
and best his effort and attitude and finish s is

(33:54):
the situational masters, just being great in the red zone,
being awesome on third down, understanding how to conduct a
two minute drill, and things of that nature. And then
t is tackling. So those are the things that we
really pride ourselves on. More than that, the overarching theme
of our defense is empowerment. So at the end of

(34:15):
the day, whether it's Logan, the safeties, whoever it is,
they have to make, you know, the decisions on the grass,
and we have to empower them as coaches to make
the decisions and get us in the best defense and
make sure everybody's playing. You know, one unified call.

Speaker 2 (34:31):
Support your quarterback, your MVP finalist, quarterback. Yes, Al Golden,
Dan hord Bengals Booth Podcast one more. Obviously, Al was
here coaching linebackers and helped I think to a large degree.
Logan Wilson turned into a mainstay on the Cincinnati defense,
and Dan asked all about reuniting with Logan.

Speaker 4 (34:51):
I just can't wait to see him. To be honest
with you, he was one of my favorite players of
all time, just the way he conducted himself, the pro
that he is. I know he got banged up a
little bit last year, so I know he's gonna have
a little edge to him, and I want to help
him every way I can maximize and become, you know,
the best player that he can possibly be, the best leader,

(35:12):
and I just can't wait to get to work with him.

Speaker 2 (35:16):
There's Al Golden with Dan Horden making sounds with his
mouth at the tail end. Get more of that on
the Bengals Booth podcast, which is an absolute must if
you're a Bengals fan. You can get it on the
iHeartRadio app. There you go, There you go. More of
that later on. We have the weekend in college basketball

(35:39):
coming up. Speaking and Dan was texting me from Utah
or not Bear Cats are in Utah, or at least
on their way to Utah. I'm sure they're there by
now getting set to take on by you late tomorrow night.
If we called Tuesday night, at least I did a
must wins. Now tomorrow for the bear Cats has to
be a must win. I think it is kind of
for Xavier as well, home against Yukon. We'll talk about

(36:02):
both those and other area college games coming up in
just a bit. First, I have a question about the Dodgers,
the Reds baseball, and whether you want the sport to
go away for a year. Next, my name is Moegar.
This is ESPN fifteen thirty station.

Speaker 1 (36:17):
This is ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 2 (36:21):
Yes, that's us, Hi, I'm Moegar. This is our show.
It's on ESPN fifteen thirty. You've chosen to listen, and
so thank you for doing that. Hopefully you are already
enjoying your weekend, which we are an hour and fifty
six minutes away from enjoying ourselves. And who knows, we

(36:42):
might start enjoying it before. We will see, we will see.
Let's see, we've got folks waiting on hold. I say
we push everything else that I was going to do
off to the side, because God knows, nothing I say
is as important as what our vast community of sports
talk radio listeners has on their mind. But before we
do that, very quickly, I neglected. I said, before we

(37:05):
had Anthony Defino on, I said, I'm going to give
you sports headlines, and then I didn't. I lied, I
misled you, and I apologize. FC Cincinnati won a preseason
friendly today over Montreal one zip, one nil. Uh as
we say, sixteen year old Andre, I'm trying to figure

(37:32):
out how to say this complete honest c H I
R I L A Cherillia. Sure, we'll go with that, Charilla, Cherilla,
it's not that bad. I made that harder than needed
to be. It's not that bad, Cherilla. C H I

(37:53):
R I L A. Sixteen year old Andre Charilla scored
the lone goal. Congratulations to him. And then what else
do we have? We got a loaded college basketball slate,
which we'll get to a little bit later on. Pete
Carroll's been hired by the Raiders. That's not really a
local sports headline. I feel bad for Pete because I
think the Raiders are an absolute mess and a coach

(38:16):
with a very proud and great resume, Hall of Fame resume.
You might argue deserves better than to go coach that
dumpster fire. But good luck to the AFC West now
with Sean Payton and Andy Reid super Bowl winners, Pete
Carroll super Bowl winner, and Jim Harball Super Bowl participant
and National Championship winner suddenly loaded with coaches, which is awesome.

(38:42):
All right, that's really good. That like ninety second pause
while I tried to figure out how to say that
dude's name. And that was good radio, right, there wasn't it. Yeah?
All right, let's see Rob in Northern Kentucky. Rob, you're
on ESPN fifteen thirty. Good afternoon.

Speaker 7 (38:59):
Oh yeah, for taking my call. I'm comment about the
Reds and whether they're improved. I do agree with you.
I think they're improved, particularly if they're healthy. And I
agree with you about the acquisitions as singer and looks.
They're solid players, not great, but I think they were
good acquisitions. But I'm going to reframe the red situation

(39:22):
for this year. In the next couple of years, they
have several good young players, including pitchers, and if those
guys continue to improve, they're not going to be able
to keep them all long time, particularly Dala Cruz. And
unlike the bygone era of the Nolan Ryans of the world,
who could give you thirty five starts in two hundred

(39:43):
and fifty innings, it's a different era. So let's just
take Abbott for example. If he averages twelve wins and
a four OE era and one hundred and eighty innings
the next two three years, he'll get a huge contract.
The point I'm making is the Reds window of opportunity
is right now. Yes, I'll shut up and listen to

(40:05):
your thoughts.

Speaker 2 (40:06):
Could not agree more, could not could not agree more.
It's why, as much as I do think they're improved,
it's why it's so frustrating to watch them sit by
relatively idly. And yeah, they they did add Gavin Lux
who's an Ice acquisition, and they did add Brady Singer,
who's specifically the type of picture I think we were
all hoping they would go and get. But yeah, their

(40:27):
window is now. Like you mentioned Ellie de la Cruz,
you and I both know they're gonna be every time
Ellie's name comes up, every time his name comes up,
someone's gonna say, well, what are they are? They are
they gonna try to pay him? Are they gonna try
to sign them? How come they haven't done it? Can
they sign them? They would love to, They would love to.

(40:48):
Chances are it's not gonna happen. You may blame the
system for that. You may blame Ellie's agent for that,
you may blame the Reds for that. And I could
be dead wrong about this, but I am operating under
the assumption Ellie Dela Cruz will not be here past
twenty twenty nine. Well, the good news is there's half
a decade between now and then five seasons. So how

(41:14):
about you win while you have a player like that?
And then you add to it like I think there's
a lot of teams who were on the outside looking
into the playoffs last year, and maybe some had to
hit the reset button, and maybe some have had to
make a few tweaks, and maybe some are simply hoping
for better health and for better luck. I would be

(41:35):
willing to bet most of their general managers would love
to have Hunter Green, Andrew Abbott, Nicko Lodolo Graham. Ashcraft
has always been thrust into that conversation. I'm not sure
he deserves to be right now, but we'll certainly acknowledge
that he is still a part of the organization who
would love to have Rhet Louder. By the way, there
are folks who believe Chase Burns, who was in here

(41:57):
with us yesterday, who hasn't pitched in the Pros yet,
could pitch a great American ballpark this year. I think
there's a lot of teams who are where the Reds
were last year, seventy seven win team, hoping for better results.
A lot of those gms and a lot of those
fans would love the guys that I just mentioned. So
you could do it, I guess a couple of different ways.

(42:19):
You could say, well, all right, fine, they have to
keep building a pipeline. So when they do lose some
of the guys they have right now, and invariably players
are gonna leave, you have someone who could replace them.
That should be the overarching goal of this franchise, right
to continue to churn out really good big league talent
pitchers and position players, obviously both. But at the same time,

(42:40):
while you have the guys you have, win with them.
Win with them. You could argue with a window doesn't
ever have to close. And if you're a really well
run organization. The window never totally closes, fine, but it's
open sometimes more, and it's open more in some years

(43:01):
than it is in others. Right, some years it's wide
or open. I'm being clumsy with this, but in some
years the window is wider open and in some we
know this is Bengals fans right, Like some years the
window is wide open. Some years and it's open but
maybe not nearly as much. There's different levels of contention,
Like I'll make it about Ellie and Hunter specifically, because
those are two All Stars last year, guys who are

(43:24):
still I think you could say still just ascending. You
get one for the rest of the decade, you get
the other through twenty twenty eight. That's Hunter Green. Win
with those guys now, build around those players now. And
by the way, I brought this up maybe two weeks ago,
we talk about like players leaving, and you know, with

(43:47):
the Bengals and T Higgins pay T Higgins, it certainly
feels like T is open as staying in Cincinnati. I'm
willing to vent one of the reasons why is he
feels like he could have team success here. They've already had.
Some these guys want to win. They want to build
their brands. A lot of folks ask, you know, and

(44:08):
Mike Trout in Anaheim has dealt with a ton of injuries, right,
a ton of injuries in recent years. One of the
things people have often asked about him is, like, you
have this like Hall of Fame caliber player, one of
the very best players we've had in baseball in decades.
Why isn't he heard from more often? Why isn't he

(44:30):
promoted more often? Why don't I see him in national
ad campaigns? And one of the reasons is his team stinks.
He's appeared in three postseason games, his team has won
none of them. These guys want to win. They want
to win, and they want what comes with winning. So
if you're watching some of these younger Reds players wondering

(44:52):
how can they keep them, how can they lock them up,
how can they keep them from leaving, Well, one of
the ways is to show we're willing to win. You
have a chance to win here, and if you win here,
you'll build your brand and you'll enjoy everything that comes
with winning if you choose to. But yeah, like I

(45:14):
did this a couple of weeks ago as well, like
this offseason to me has been frustrating because of the
relative lack of activity. And I understand there's financial weirdness
because of the TV thing, Like fine, I get it,
but there have been off seasons where the Reds have
done next to nothing and it didn't bother me at
all because they didn't think the team was an off
season move away from being good. They had to fix

(45:36):
their home first, they had to fix their system. They
had to like figure out a way to have young
homegrown players or young players that were still up and
coming they got from other organizations. And then once you
build a nucleus and did it very organically, then you
go make moves when you stink and you don't have
the nucleus and you haven't built anything organically. Who cares

(45:57):
If you go get somebody from outside, it's not gonna help.
But the Reds have I think a pretty good nucleus.
Some of these guys are very unproven, right, Like do
we know that Matt McClain is gonna come back and
have the season that he had two years ago? He
hasn't played a full big league year yet. And are
we punning on Noelve martere ready or are we not?
Are we holding out hope that he could go back
to being the kind of hitter at least that we

(46:18):
saw at the end of twenty twenty three. Like there's
there are still a lot of unknowns, but it does
feel like they have a nucleus. Does feel like they
have something worth building on top of and building around.
They haven't really done it this offseason, and so there's
a couple of things about that. Number One, are you
wasting your window? Number two? Are you wasting you know,
I stopped short of calling Ellie or Hunter great, they're
not there yet, But are you racing? Are you wasting

(46:40):
really goodness? Are you wasting having the kind of players
that other teams will cove it in a couple of years?
And are you showing those guys you know what? You
stay here, We'll do everything we can to win. Like
players want to win, but I think they also want
to know that the people that I work for are
gonna do everything they can to win to help me win.

(47:03):
And so do you want to get to a point
where one of those guys or someone else says, you
know what, I want to get out of here as
quickly as possible because I'm either not gonna win here
or the people that I work for aren't gonna do
everything they can to help me win, like this is.

(47:24):
I think this is an immensely important year for this franchise.
You know, two years ago we talked about how they're
they're ahead of schedule, and they were one more than
they lost a season after losing one hundred games, and
then last year kind of felt like, Okay, the schedule,
so to speak, kind of caught up to them. What's

(47:46):
this year supposed to be, what's this year supposed to be,
and what's next year supposed to be. I mean, if
we're if the season ends and we're talking about the
Reds finishing below five hundred or just around five hundred
and still wondering when are they going to get to

(48:08):
the playoffs? Like, I think the feel and the vibe
is going to be a lot different than it was
at the end of last season and than it is
right now. So yeah, man, I certainly do believe and
I certainly do agree with the suggestion that there's a

(48:28):
wider open window now than there has been in a while.
That window is not necessarily going to close at the
end of this season. But before we get all caught
up in players who may leave. How about you win
with them, and how about you do everything you can
to win with them to a ensure you win with them,

(48:50):
and b make them feel like you'll do everything to
give them a chance to win. Appreciate the phone call
sixteen after four o'clock speaking of the Reds in baseball,
A lot of folks are mad at the Dodgers, mad
at the system and hoping for the unthinkable or what
used to be the unthinkable. Let's talk about that next

(49:11):
on ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati Sports Station twenty after four.
This is ESPN fifteen thirty. That's something I was supposed
to read on a daily basis, Channing, I want you
to start charting this on how many on a daily basis.

(49:32):
I feel like once the show, I come back from
a break with something that I'm supposed to do and
I have lost the piece of paper or whatever it
is I jotted something down, or the reminder if this
show over the last three or four weeks has proven
that maybe more than anybody on the planet, I am
a disorganized mess. Good stuff on the Reds before or

(50:00):
everybody's mad at Dodgers because the Dodgers keep spending money
keep deferring money, keep going over the luxury tax threshold.
We talked about this yesterday. Our buddy Mike called in
and my take was and is now, I don't resent
rich people, and I don't get mad when rich people

(50:21):
do what rich people do. I don't get mad when
rich people buy really nice, big houses. I don't get
mad when really rich people buy really nice cars. I
don't resent that. It's assuming they have acquired their wealth
legally and ethically. What should I care. They're playing under
the rules. Rich people can spend their money however they want.
The Dodgers are rich. They can spend their money however

(50:44):
they want. I do not blame them, and they're playing
within the rules. If you're playing within the rules, you
do whatever you want and bother me at all. Playing
by the rules. The owners of the Dodgers don't have
an obligation to the other teams too well. The rules
are skewed, so let's be fair to everybody else, and
let's not try to make our team as good as

(51:05):
we possibly can. They are major professional sports franchise. The
obligation is to the people who emotionally and financially invest
the Dodgers' obligation isn't to the Tampa Bay Rays, or
the Pittsburgh Pirates, or the Fresno A's or wherever they're playing,
or the Cincinnati Reds to themselves. So I don't I'm

(51:29):
not mad at the Dodgers. I don't think you should be.
Don't blame the Dodgers. You could blame the system. Here's
what I want to know. If you're a baseball fan,
I would imagine the majority of baseball fans, perhaps you
would like to see the sport adopt a salary cap.

(51:49):
I've said a few times on this show over the
years that philosophically speaking, I'm opposed to anything that restricts salaries.
Justly speaking, I'm I'm opposed. Salary caps were not originally
enacted by the sports that have them to maintain parody.
They were. They were put in place to keep salaries

(52:11):
down like that's that's a fact, and so I'm I'm
against anything that restricts salary I think the best in
the world at what they do, the best at any business,
should be able to go and get the most amount
of money they can. But I certainly will acknowledge that
there are a lot of baseball fans who feel like,

(52:31):
you know what, my team has no chance, and I'd
like to see my team be compelled at least to
go and get some of the prize free agents that
end up in places like Los Angeles and New York.
And so I'm willing to try it. I'm I'm okay, fine,
Let's let's see. Let's let's see if if putting in
a cap can level the playing field, and let's see

(52:52):
if it can achieve the desired results. Like I'm here
for it. I like, now I want one, So let's
see if we can get one. How are you going
to get one? Well, there's a collective bargaining agreement. It
expires at the end of the twenty twenty six season.
Collective bargaining agreements in baseball have often when they end
led us to work stoppages. Baseball has a long history

(53:16):
of work stoppages. They're painful, they hurt a lot of people.
Baseball had a lockout prior to the twenty twenty two season.
A lot of baseball employees were furloughed lost their jobs, which,
by the way, I thought was just bs by owners.
But that's a different topic. There are a lot of
people who have a stake in baseball who don't own

(53:36):
baseball teams or work for baseball teams, baseball adjacent businesses, broadcasters,
restaurants and bars near ballparks, team employees, people who make
their living working games, and so. Nobody likes work stoppages.
But baseball's had them obviously, most notably ninety four to

(53:56):
ninety five player strike, which cost the sport the World's
Series and cost the sport a lot of fans that
it took years to get back. But owners have for
decades been demanding, if you will, a salary cap. Players
have the entire time been opposed or resistance or resistant

(54:18):
to hesitant to to let baseball have one right they
players don't want want owners do. So we've had strikes,
we've had lockouts, and every single time, eventually owner's cave
and there's no salary cap. Now, sometimes there are changes
to the economics of the sport that don't evolve a

(54:38):
salary cap, and sometimes players get you know, they got
this pass, go around this last lockout, a higher minimum salary,
previous cbas. They've negotiated more trivial stuff like the one
year players wanted a seat to themselves on the bus
in spring training, which okay, so it changes, But the
bottom line is, and in the history of there's a long,

(55:01):
long history of owners wanting a salarycap, players saying no,
and owners never getting the players to a point that
they say yes, and holding their ground long enough for
players to say yes. Now, what could change that. It
could change if the new CBA comes and goes again

(55:22):
ends at the end of the twenty sixth season, and
I'm sure owners are gonna want a salarycap and the
players are going to say no, and maybe there's gonna
be a work stoppage, maybe there's gonna be another lockout.
If you're a baseball fan and you want a salarycap,
would you be willing to put up with the owners
locking out the players for maybe an entire season, if

(55:46):
not longer, to eventually get it? Because using history as
a guide, I see that as really the only way
you know take Let's let's go back two and a
half years ago. Three years ago, I guess when we
had a lockout right lasted for most of the offseason,
and then it got quickly resolved and spring training took

(56:09):
place very quickly, just over a couple of weeks, and
the season started started a couple of weeks late, but
we still had a full one hundred and sixty two
game season. Spring training still happened. What if instead of
owners caving, they said, we're not we're not We're not
gonna have We're not gonna have baseball. We're locking you

(56:30):
out until you agree to a cap, or at least
agree to negotiate a cap, to negotiate with us understanding
that the ultimate goal is for us to get a cap. Now,
they're going to have to make concessions to players and
give them things that they have long wanted, like perhaps
earlier free agency, or higher minimum salaries or different no

(56:53):
trade protections and contracts. They're gonna have to give up something,
but I mean it's something that has really not even
been negotiated because the players have taken a hard line stance.
We're not taking a cap, we're not accepting a salary cap.
So the only way to get them to relent is
to lock them out for such a long period of
time that the players eventually say, fine, whatever, we want

(57:13):
to come back to work, want to get paid. We'll
give you a cap. Now that could come with a
lot of extensive collateral damage the sport goes away, it's
already a sport that is very much local, not national,
doesn't occupy the same place in American culture that it
used to. The sports space has never been more competitive. MLB,

(57:37):
which is still wildly popular, has lost ground to the NFL,
loses more ground. It feels like every year that's lost
ground to college football, lose ground to other areas that
people can spend their entertainment dollars. So it's going to
come at an expense. My question, if you're a baseball
fan is if I said to you, the sport goes

(57:59):
away for a year or even longer, but when it
comes back, there will be the cap and then we
could try to see what baseball looks like as a
salary cap sport. Would you be okay with that? And
for me, at least, I don't think the answer is yes.
Part of it is I can't imagine not having a

(58:22):
baseball season to talk about. I can't imagine having a
baseball seas where I couldn't go to and watch games.
I also know what would happen. I mean, there'd be
a lot of folks who financially took it in the
can if baseball went away. We saw this during COVID
right where you know, baseball came back for sixty games,
but fans couldn't go Like, no one sold their team,

(58:42):
but the people who bought teams fired a lot of employees,
laid off a lot of employees, a lot of businesses
adjacent to baseball struggled. I'm sure some went under. But
from where I sit and just kind of having paid
attention to his three of this sport, if you watch

(59:03):
what the Dodgers do and you see the growing disparity
between teams like that and some of the team I
don't want to say poor teams, because there are no
poor Major League Baseball teams, but the smaller market clubs.
If you see that growing gap and you think the
only way to solve it is to have a salary cap, fine,
I guess a couple of things. Number One, would you

(59:23):
be okay with the sport going away if we got
a cap as a result of a long drawn out
period of the sport being away? And what would you
legitimately be willing to if you're an owner or if
you're with the owners, be willing to give the players
in order to achieve the salary cap, like one thing
people are gonna say is, well, give give the players

(59:43):
earlier a free agency. Sounds cool, right, Like instead of
after six years, you're a free agent, now it's after four.
Sounds great. But then imagine like a player like Elie
de la Cruz, instead of being able to bounce after
twenty twenty nine, he can bounce after twenty twenty seven,
like a younger player that comes through your system. You

(01:00:04):
put a lot of time and effort and energy into
The cool thing about baseball now is you get that
guy for six years. That's that's not something that really
exists in the NBA. It really only exists for franchise
players who were taken in the first round. For NFL
teams doesn't exist. So like, you know, people see what
the Dodgers doing, they say, well, put in a cap. Well,

(01:00:25):
you don't just put something in, you negotiate it. Well,
they've negotiated or tried to. Owners have before to try
to get the players to say, yes, we'll take a cap.
It's never worked. The only thing that I think would
work is if baseball said you are locked out maybe
for a year, maybe even longer, until you acquiesce, relent

(01:00:46):
and give us a salary cap and then once they say, fine,
we'll at least talk about it. You have to be
willing to give something up. Some are going to say, well,
you know, have a salary floor. We already have one
cat am minimum salary and a number of players you
have on your roster, there's a floor. Like if you
had twenty six guys on your roster and they each
make the league minimum, there's your floor. You might say, well,

(01:01:09):
raise it, okay, But to this point players have shown
no appetite for that. So if you're a baseball fan
and you look at the Dodgers and you see what's
happening with the sport, which I will admit, at least
from a perception perspective, is problematic because you have a
lot of fans who believe their team has no chance.
And by the way, some of those fans believe incorrectly

(01:01:30):
that their team has no chance. But if you look
at it and go the ultimate culprit is the financial
model of the sport. The only way it gets changed
is if the owners say we're locking you out and
we're not letting you back in until you take a cap.
I'm telling you that would take more than just a
couple of months, and you know that if you use
history as a guide, it would take possibly a year,

(01:01:53):
maybe even longer. So in order for the sport to
get a cap, it probably would have to go an
entire seasons would be unplayed. Is that a trade off
if you're a baseball fan that you would be willing
to make? I do have a couple of open lines
at five one, three, seven, four, nine, fifteen thirty and

(01:02:15):
eight sixty six, seven oh two, three, seven, seven six
sports headlines and a weekend of opportunities in college basketball,
plus more from Al Golden on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati
Sports Station.

Speaker 1 (01:02:27):
Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty Traffic.

Speaker 2 (01:02:31):
It's twenty two from five Sports Headlines are a service
of Kelsey Chevrolet, Home of lifetime power train protection and
guaranteed credit approval from their family to yours for life,
Kelsey chev dot com. FC Cincinnati played a friendly today,
a preseason friendly, that's what they call him in Major
League Soccer, right friendlies? For they played an exhibition game,

(01:02:54):
a scrimmage, a game that doesn't count A friendly in Florida.
Not here in Florida, which is where I wish I
was right now. Against Montreal and they won. They won
one zip Andre Charilla, sixteen year old kid a goal
the only goal won nothing. FC Cincinnati wins Sport with
the shortest offseason ever. By the way, our buddy James

(01:03:18):
Rapene reports that Bengals quarterbacks coach Charles Burks still gonna
be Bengals quarterbacks corner cornerbacks coach Berks. That's wrong with me?
College basketball Tonight on ESPN fifteen thirty. It's NKU looking
to snap a four game losing skid. Does anybody say that?

(01:03:40):
And let's not call it that. Nobody in real life says, well,
the North tonight going to the game. Hopefully they can
break that four game losing skid. They've lost four straight games.
They host Milwaukee tonight on ESPN fifteen thirty. Also tonight,
Dayton's taking on Saint Joe's. The Hawks are three and
three in the league. Dayton's three and three in the league.
The Flyers coming off I think their best played game

(01:04:01):
of the season in eighty two to sixty two win
over du Cane that dare I say was not as
close as the final score would indicate. Seven thirty is
your tip off tonight Tomorrow big showdown in the MAC
Miami and Akron first place on the line. Both teams
are six and zero. Travis Steel's getting over fifteen points

(01:04:23):
a game from former Xavier musketeer Cam Kraft. That game
is two o'clock tomorrow afternoon. I think sneaky good game
tomorrow on ESPN fifteen thirty. Kentucky and Vanderbilt. That games
in Nashville at two thirty. The Wildcats have not played
since their loss to Alabama. Vanderbilt's last game also a
lost to Alabama, So the two coaches can, you know,

(01:04:46):
compare notes of Alabama otherways. Looking at ESPN dot com
today had fifteen coaches who could be considered for the
National Coach of the Year award. Pat Kelsey at Louisville
was one of them, and understandably so because he's done
a great job with the Cardinals and Mark Pope as well.
I mean, interesting thing about Kentucky is defensively they're not great.

(01:05:07):
Offensively they are they're really fun to watch. I mean,
they're kind of the antithesis of the teams that Cal
had over the last couple of years, and they can
come at you a number of different ways offensively with
a lot of different, different types of really good players.
Two thirty tomorrow on ESPN fifteen thirty, Xavier battles Yukon
at home. I saw yesterday there were two hundred standing

(01:05:31):
room only seats. I guess they wouldn't be seats. If
you're standing two hundred standing room only tickets yesterday, I'm
sure they're gone. Eight o'clock tomorrow night. Musketeers should have
beaten Yukon the first go around. They should have beaten
Saint John's on Wednesday night. A golden opportunity for the Musketeers.
I don't want to say this. I shouldn't say this

(01:05:51):
in late January because there's still so much season to go.
Dan Hurley's team is good, and Dan Hurley's team is
probably gonna make a run in March. And I believe
his assessment to that referee that turned his back on
him the other night. He is the best coach in
the sport. This Yukon team to this point doesn't have

(01:06:12):
anywhere close to the same feel that the two previous
Yukon teams did that won the national title. That doesn't
mean they're not very good, and it doesn't mean that
they're not going to provide stiff competition for the Musketeers tomorrow.
I have not seen an update on Dalen Swain, who
obviously suffered the ankle injury at MSG on Wednesday. Badly

(01:06:34):
need him tomorrow night. Speaking of badly needed the bearcatcher.
Two and five in the league, UC goes to BYU
tomorrow night, first of two games in Utah ten o'clock
tip off. Cincinnati did win at BYU last year Wes
Miller's team, and this, to me has been a huge
source of frustration because it's been like, whack them all right, Hey,

(01:06:54):
the offense looks fixed, it's getting better. Cool, except the
defense now stinks. All right, within the game, you fix
the defense, except now, well, we can't rebound the ball.
And it's maddening as a fan, I'm sure, very much
so as a coach. Wes Miller talked yesterday before the
team left for Utah about a lot of different things,

(01:07:16):
namely getting his guys to come together and improve on
the offensive end. Yeah, well, I think.

Speaker 8 (01:07:24):
That means that there's a lot of better basketball in
front of us, but getting everybody to you know, play
closer to their potential collectively in league, we don't feel
like that's happened yet, and I think that's that's a
positive way of looking at it, because that means we're
going to be playing some better basketball when it does happen.
And there's secret sauce to how to do that. I'd

(01:07:45):
already used it, but I think, like anything, it's a
trivial answer, but it's the truth is you just you
keep grinding at it every day, you keep coming here
to work. And good thing is we had to stretch
there where didn't think anybody was playing very well. Now
you're starting to see some guys break out and look

(01:08:08):
like themselves again. We just got to keep keep on
keeping on, and I think we're again. I was just disappointed,
as you guys know, with the I'm keeping on the
outcome of the Texas Tech game. I was disappointed with
the defense, the rebounding, loose balls and that type of thing.
But I do think over the last three games we're
starting to play better basketball as a team. So when

(01:08:30):
you look at it over the last three there's some
some things that are happening in a positive way.

Speaker 2 (01:08:36):
Keep on keeping on. Wes Miller says, By the way,
I said something wrong before the game tomorrow night is
at ten thirty, not ten o'clock, ten thirty in Provo
Saturday night in Provo Baby ten thirty Tomorrow night on
seven hundred WLW. Get a nappand get an appen, get
a get an appen or just enjoy yourself so thoroughly

(01:08:59):
on on Saturday and then stay up and be sort
of have yourself in a in a place physically and
mentally where how they play in the outcome of the game,
you know, kind of doesn't matter.

Speaker 4 (01:09:13):
Do that?

Speaker 2 (01:09:15):
What else do we have? Hockey tonight? The Cyclones are playing,
and because I have eight pads of paper in front
of me, they're playing Iowa tonight. Iowa buck drops at
seven thirty. All right, well, I'm gonna hear more from
Al Golden and then take some phone calls and see
if somebody can approve upon this disaster of a show

(01:09:37):
on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 1 (01:09:40):
Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 5 (01:09:44):
Traffic from the UC Health Traffic Center. At u see Health,
you'll find comprehensive care that's so personal it makes your
best tomorrow possible. That's boundless care for better outcomes. Expect
more at ucehealth dot com. Northbound seventy five at Western
Hill to the right lane is blocked. That is from
an accident. Suthbound seventy five at Seventh Street, the leupp

(01:10:06):
lane block from a disabled vehicle and an earlier crash
now cleared Redding Road over at Paddock Road. I'm at
ezelic with traffic.

Speaker 2 (01:10:15):
This report is sponsored by Rapid Phone. Calls are coming up.
This is ESPN fifteen thirty. My name is Mooweger. Thank
you for joining us today. We had some of this
earlier Bengals Booth podcast, but Dan Horde, which is a
much listen if you have like a regular podcast rotation
that you're hopefully not listening to between the hours of
three o'clock and six o'clocker because I'm a team player

(01:10:38):
the hours of noon and six o'clock, well you gotta
have the Bengals Booth podcast in that podcast rotation. It's
hosted by Dan Horde, a young, up and coming broadcaster
who has a very bright future. Al Golden was on
his podcast. Al is the Bengals defensive coordinator, and Dan
asked Al about some of the similarities between coaching defense

(01:10:59):
in college versus the NFL.

Speaker 4 (01:11:01):
That's a great question because it's really it's blurred a
lot more than it was a decade ago. You just see,
you know, more quarterback runs now, more RPOs. And I
think the biggest thing that college teaches you is you
have to have a very very flexible system because you
could be playing Navy one week and then you know,
Florida State the next week or USC. So every every

(01:11:25):
every offense is of its own DNA, you know, and
you've got to be able to be flexible enough and
have a system that you know, can bend and contort
to solve the problems that each presents.

Speaker 2 (01:11:37):
I am going to spend my weekend bending and contorting.
What about his time? Yeah, bending and contorting all weekend, kid,
get your head out of the gutter, tarn bending and
contorting all weekend long. Al Golden Bengals defensive coordinator on
the Bengals Booth podcast. Do you think it was better

(01:11:57):
when we didn't have Friday shows? Here's more from Al
on his time in college and how helpful it'll be
in developing young talent. Since the Bengals are going to
spend all their money on offense and draft on defense.

Speaker 4 (01:12:09):
I think development is at the core of everything that
we do on defense and making sure that we're great
at you know, ball disruption, we're awesome at tackling, and
that we understand the situations. And then once the guys
understand that this is what we want, how do we
refine it and quality control it and get better. And
ultimately to empower means to give them the culture so

(01:12:30):
that they're handing it down to the next group, or
you know, if the veterans come in and they're learning
it now, we draft some guys or bring some guys
in that they can manage it in the locker room.
And that's how it catches fire. And so I think
if we're going to be young, that's great, but it
doesn't mean we can't execute at a really, really high level.
And there are no excuses at this level and certainly,

(01:12:52):
you know, we're on the clock and we got to
get to work.

Speaker 2 (01:12:56):
Good stuff. There's more of that on the Bengals Booth
podcast with Dan Horde. It's on the ihire Radio app
al Golden Bengals Defensive Coordinator Bending and Contorting. Let's see
if Ian can save this show. Hi, Ian, You're on
ESPN fifteen thirty Good afternoon, Pretty good.

Speaker 9 (01:13:17):
Hey, many I call in and I give you my
first name, but I think in the future I'm gonna
switch it to my last name.

Speaker 2 (01:13:25):
Okay, prove spelled day?

Speaker 6 (01:13:27):
Are ugs more memorable?

Speaker 9 (01:13:30):
And you know that's just better? And you're always saying,
make this show better. But hey, I've counted six times
since I've been waiting on hold that I've laughed, So
I'm either easily amused or I'm actually entertained. And you're
pretty good, so I'm gonna keep I'm gonna keep drilling that.

Speaker 2 (01:13:51):
Sorry. Sometimes sometimes it's like, are you laughing with me
or at me? Because I feel like when people say
I laugh when I'm listening, I just feel like everybody's
laughing at me. But trust me, I know in my
circle of friends and family, they listen to this show
and usually just laughing uproariously at what I'm doing. So

(01:14:12):
while they're off doing things that are productive, well, man.

Speaker 3 (01:14:18):
I saw you.

Speaker 9 (01:14:20):
I saw you at uh eating out. It looks like
with the crew back in like two thousand and six
at the local Italian atte And.

Speaker 6 (01:14:29):
If you're gonna do that, that means you're a.

Speaker 3 (01:14:32):
Pretty good guy.

Speaker 9 (01:14:33):
You know, I would give you the staff of approval
there good play the Italian.

Speaker 2 (01:14:39):
It was too that what you're saying was, well I
worked their way back in like two thousand and six
on that.

Speaker 9 (01:14:47):
Yeah, but uh, anyways, I'm gonna jump to my prospective beer.

Speaker 2 (01:14:53):
Go ahead, keep moulling over six.

Speaker 9 (01:14:55):
I keep molling over it, and okay, positive me is
gonna say. I talked to you and I was like,
we need to you know, could they get like a
two fifty to.

Speaker 3 (01:15:05):
Two seventy hitter.

Speaker 9 (01:15:07):
Well, they didn't pick anybody else up. And I'm looking
at Gavin Lux's average and says he's a two fifty average.
If becomes a great American, would that increase his average
to like two sixty.

Speaker 2 (01:15:21):
Maybe? I don't know. Maybe, I mean he's he's I
think the positive thing with Gavin Lux is he is
going to be moving to a more hitter friendly park.
I think the positive thing with Gavin Lux is well,
number one, healthier because he missed all of twenty twenty three,
and then when he kind of got going in the
second half of the season, he was terrific yet an

(01:15:42):
ops of nearly nine hundred. So if Gavin Lux ends
up being the best hitter on this team, that's a problem.
But can he be a positive offensive contributor based on
what he did over the course of the second half
of the season with the Dodgers, I think the answer
is yes.

Speaker 7 (01:16:01):
Yeah.

Speaker 9 (01:16:01):
So to shorten everything up to the end of the
positive me and I'll give you my quick negative note
and it'll be fast. Uh So what I'm saying is okay,
So maybe let's just say guys stay relatively healthy. All right,
let's kind of put those dark shadows aside. And yeah,

(01:16:22):
Gavin does hit that a little bit above that two fifty,
so that kind of fills a void. And my instinct, man,
I really think it's true. I think Ces is a guy.

Speaker 4 (01:16:34):
Dude.

Speaker 9 (01:16:35):
I think he really could be. I know we don't
have the evidence, but from what that little bit that
I saw, I believe.

Speaker 2 (01:16:43):
So if he's that guy, and Matt.

Speaker 9 (01:16:45):
McClean stays healthy, which is kind of hard to believe,
but maybe, hey, maybe he was going too hard man
in the spring training and just wanting it too much,
and that's part of the problem. Then you get a
nagging into or that it's hard to.

Speaker 3 (01:17:01):
Get away from that he had last year.

Speaker 9 (01:17:04):
So if you put that all into perspective and they
get to the halfway point.

Speaker 3 (01:17:09):
And here's where the negative comes in. It's positive or negative.

Speaker 9 (01:17:13):
They're relying, Okay, if we're way ahead, then we'll make
the trade for that extra bat.

Speaker 7 (01:17:19):
I hate that.

Speaker 9 (01:17:20):
I hate that they don't do it now and wait
till that point. But now then there's the negative is
is gosh, they're really that strapped and they're really that
afraid of the shutdown that they're just gonna they're gonna
play that card in this wide open window and you
have that kind of talent or do they kind of,

(01:17:44):
you know, not have the same positive perspective that I have.
It kind of worries me, you know what I mean?
Did they spend all the money on investment inside of
Mark and they're that strapped?

Speaker 3 (01:17:55):
I mean, what's the deal.

Speaker 2 (01:17:56):
Well, there's a lot that you threw at me there.
I mean, first of all, I'll be the first entime
I can remember when Cees hit thirty three homers across
a full season in Louisville and Cincinnati at the end
of the twenty twenty three season, he did enough with
the bat to make you feel like that's a cornerstone,
that's a piece I'm not willing to move off of.

Speaker 6 (01:18:14):
That.

Speaker 2 (01:18:15):
I still think that can happen, and if he stays healthy,
I'm willing to bet that. You talk about being a
positive offensive force, I think he can be one. I
worry about this team from a defensive perspective, because defensively
they were a train wreck last year. I worry about
them not getting getting enough enough offense from the corner

(01:18:35):
outfield spots, and they haven't done anything this offseason to
rectify that. From the outside, when I hear people say
in January, well, we'll go get a bat. In July,
will go get a bat at the deadline, why are
we waiting? Why Why in July you have to trade
for it, which means there are other teams who are

(01:18:56):
also going to be looking for something that they needed
the deadline. Why not go get it now when it
might not be as complex. If you acknowledge we're gonna
need help in July, go get the help now. So
that frustrates me. I don't use anything. I don't use
any financial limitations that they're dealing with. I don't use

(01:19:17):
that as an excuse for two reasons. Number One, this
ownership group has had two decades to figure it out.

Speaker 3 (01:19:24):
Now.

Speaker 2 (01:19:25):
I know some things have happened with the TV deal
that you could not have foreseen maybe twenty years ago.
I know they had to go through the COVID Dear
like everybody else where, they lost money. My issue has
never been with what they spend. It's been with the
results they achieve, whether the results haven't been good enough,
and when the results haven't been good enough after a
long period of time, you don't get to make excuses anymore. Also,

(01:19:47):
they have twenty owners. Most of those owners have done
nothing but make money. After a certain amount of time,
I think you're within reason to ask them for some
financial help in an effort to make the team better
and those owners to make even more money.

Speaker 9 (01:20:03):
All right, I got one more thing. Okay, if we
were looking history quickly, you did the Vato deal. But
then you did the same thing like you're doing now.

Speaker 2 (01:20:14):
Why don't you learn from that history?

Speaker 9 (01:20:16):
Man, We got these guys on free money right now.

Speaker 3 (01:20:20):
Yeah, even better situation.

Speaker 9 (01:20:22):
So now is the time more than ever to invest
and get the bus in the seat so you can
make the money and stop crying about money.

Speaker 3 (01:20:31):
That's it.

Speaker 2 (01:20:32):
Yeah, I think sometimes I appreciate the nice words on
the phone call even and so you have to you
have to spend. You have to. You have to to
take a short term financial hit in order to make
a windfall later on. There's a part of me that
wishes they would do that. It's five o'clock on ESPN
fifteen thirty. This is the story of the one Yes
tast Tics Baby. Six after five. This is ESPN fifteen

(01:20:54):
thirty one. Owiger, thank you for listening today. Hopefully weekends
off to an awesome start. Know what I like? I
are a lot of things I like. So the weather
over the last couple of weeks has just sucked. I
do not have a more semantically responsible word like I'd
love to go full meteorologist. I love to be all

(01:21:15):
high brow. Look man, I talk like a normal person. Okay,
the weather of the last couple of weeks has sucked.
Snow and then like unrelenting cold it's been. I guess
we're gonna get a little bit of a break from it.
Instead of being like nine degrees, it's gonna be like
thirty nine degrees. But like right now it's twenty three,
I'm sure it feels like like fifteen. It's been. I

(01:21:37):
mean it's been unrelentingly cold and gray and gloomy, and like,
I will admit to you this, this is I'll pull
back the curtain every year, right around this time of year,
I get I'm in kind of a gloomy mood. Now
it was awesome, like the Bengals made the Super Bowl
and playing in the NFC Championship Game, and like it

(01:21:58):
is so much better because it was fun and different
and it made me forget that it's dark and cold
and gray and the sun's never out and we're still
months away from summer. But like the last couple of
weeks have been worse than usual. And I don't bring
it to work or anything, but like it for a
lot of us that gets us down. But here's the

(01:22:19):
last couple of nights. Like I'm looking out my window
right now and it's not sunny, but it's not like
it's not quite as gray and gnarly out and I
could at least see outside. And the last couple of nights,
as I've been driving home from Kenwood West, you're looking

(01:22:39):
west and obviously that's where the sun sets, hence of daylight.
So there you go. We're getting there. We're getting there.
And we've been talking a lot about baseball today, which
has been kind of cool as well. It's been been fun.
I like talking about baseball. Can't get here soon enough,
by the way, I spicking to baseball. We had good
conversations earlier this week. Jeff Brantley was here yesterday. Chris

(01:23:00):
valaka the hitting coach. That was a great interview. We
had Chase Burns and Emilia Pagan and Chase Collier in
studio yesterday. If you missed any of that, spend your
weekend listening to those conversations on the iHeartRadio app or
my page at ESPN fifteen thirty dot com and podcast
of the show a service of Longnex Sports Grill, which

(01:23:22):
sounds amazing right now, long Nex Sports Grill. Wilder hebren
rich Wood, go there, go there, now, Uh what.

Speaker 3 (01:23:31):
Do we have?

Speaker 2 (01:23:32):
You know? On the baseball thing? I started the show
by talking about this buster only of ESPN dot Com
says the Reds Reds are the most improved team in baseball.
Most improved team in baseball. I don't know if they're
the most improved team in baseball, but if I'm just
going from what they were at the end of last
season to what they are right now, yeah, I believe
they're improved simple health. They have better health now that's today.

(01:23:56):
Who knows what will happen from a health perspective during
spring training. Who knows what will happen happen from a
health perspective once the games actually start. But yeah, I
think they're I think they're healthier. I think they've they've
gained experience. Some of that experience is not so great,
some of it's maybe not enough, but they'll benefit from experience,

(01:24:16):
from better health. And I'll say it, man, I'm the
guy that spent a lot of time kind of defending
David Bell. I think they're better. Not that I think
a manager has a huge impact, but I think they
have a a better a better manager. But you know,
we we we often talk about like some years being
huge years, like for the Bengal. The Bengals off season,
this is a huge offseason for the Bengals. You simply

(01:24:39):
cannot continue to waste Joe Burrow. You simply cannot continue
to have a quarterback who's putting up MVP caliber numbers
and not even make the playoffs. So you got to
figure it out this offseason. You got to fix the
offensive line, You've got to fix the defense. You got
to get the right people in place on the coaching staff,
Like this is a big offseason, because this is a
big season. If we we are talking about Joe being

(01:25:02):
on the outside looking in putting up another great statistical
season but not playing in the playoffs, it ain't gonna
be good now, ain't gonna be good for Zach Taylor.
You're gonna upset a lot of fans. You might upset
Joe Burrow. So some years are big. I think this
is an enormous year for the Reds because for two reasons. One,

(01:25:23):
it has felt to me all along like they started
a process. Remember they really started it prior to the
twenty twenty one season, if you think about it, that's
when they gave away Rice el Iglesias. And then as
soon as the season ended in twenty one, like the
day after the World Series, they traded away Tucker Barnhart.
Then there was a lockout. Then the lockout started or

(01:25:44):
the lockout ended, and they immediately traded away Jesse Winker
and Euhaneusjuarez and Sonny Gray. And I'm not criticizing any
of that, but that was a process that was leading to, Okay,
a teardown, then a rebuild and then all right, we're
gonna start rebuilding in twenty two. Okay, Well, the part
of the rebuild has to include the payoff, right, part

(01:26:04):
of the rebuild has to include a payoff. I also
think you have to at some point have a more
concrete time to point to to say that's when we're
gonna try to win. So for years it's been well
future vague, abstract. Right, Hey, we're gonna be good in

(01:26:25):
the future. We're gonna be good down the road. We're
targeting the future, We're targeting like at some point, you
gotta target like a specific time. I would love for
now to be that time, and maybe it is. But
you can't do this endless cycle of rebuilding and then
not have a payoff. And you can't keep putting off

(01:26:48):
winning and keep telling people you know, hey, the future
is really bright. I this is maybe a clumsy comparison
or a clumsy analogy, but I used it, I think
late last season. I'll use two of them. We'll use
the two that I used. If you go out to
eat tonight at a restaurant and you walk in and

(01:27:10):
the matre d says, yeah, it's gonna be about an
hour Okay, it's Friday night, like everywhere is gonna have
a wait. That's cool. I'll go to the bar and
have a drink. We'll hang out. And an hour comes
and goes and you're still not seated, and you go
back to the matre d and you're like, how are
we looking? Where's our name? Oh, it's gonna be like

(01:27:32):
another thirty minutes, okay, And then thirty minutes elapses and
you go, hey, what happened? Like, ah, you know what,
we're turning the tables over slow tonight. It's gonna be
another like thirty minutes. After that, you keep being told
to wait. Eventually you're gonna go screw this. We are
going somewhere else. We'll grab fast food like we're out.

(01:27:52):
We're done. The longer you're told to wait. You know,
we take calls on this show, and we've taken more
since football season, and it's been great. There are days
where I will look at my screen and every line
is lit right, And there are days where every line
is lit. But we have stuff we're gonna do right,
Like we're gonna we have a guest on, or we

(01:28:13):
have a segment we got to get to, and so
I at times will say like, hey, if you're on hold,
hang tight, And the first time I say that, everybody
will wait. But if like after an hour, I keep
doing like, hey, coming up after this, blah blah blah,
Hey if you're on hold, hang tight, I'll look at
my screen and the calls will drop off. You keep
telling people to wait, eventually they're gonna go. I'm start

(01:28:33):
of waiting. And I feel like in twenty twenty three,
what the Reds did was great, and it kind of
re energized the city when it comes to baseball. It
got people paying attention again, it got people re engaged,
more people went to the ballpark. And then this year,
this past season a bit of a letdown, and I

(01:28:53):
think most said, all right, well, there were the injuries,
and maybe, yeah, we got a little ahead of ourselves.
So perhaps it was a little unreasonable to expect them
to dramatically improve upon what they did in twenty three.
All right, fine, but twenty twenty five, I need to
see results. If we get to the end of this
season and the message continues to be wait and wait

(01:29:18):
for some like impossible to wrap your brain around period
of time, that's not going to be good, Like if
we're at the end of this season still talking about
well in the future like when, like twenty twenty six,
twenty twenty eight, twenty thirty, twenty forty, like when. So
I think this is a huge I think from a

(01:29:39):
fan perspective and so many others. I also think, like
the guys we want the Reds to hang on to
for all of their prime years are paying very close
attention to what happens on the field and off So yeah, man,
they may be improved, and I think they are, and
there may be reasons why they have or haven't done
what they've done this offseason. And I'm the first to admit,

(01:30:00):
like I'm reminded of it sitting in this studio with
Cam Collier and Chase Burns yesterday. They got some young
guys at the big league level and in the minor
leagues who are really worth getting excited about. And I
share that excitement. But at some point the message has
to be something beyond hey, wait, come on, wait, good,
just another just another ten minutes, just hang tied, just

(01:30:21):
one more, a just a little bit longer, Like, dude,
it's been forever since they've won. The message. By the
end of the season, cannot be waged. It's got to
be either hey man, we were better than people expected
and we are competing right now, or you know what,
we were good enough this year that next year we
are going for it. And going for it doesn't have

(01:30:42):
to mean you give yourself no chance to win down
the road. I think this is a massive year for
this franchise. And by the way, good that's good. That's
good because I know people will get mad at me
for saying that. That's good. You want years that are
massive for your franchise. You know what's never a massive
year for your franchise when you have no talent, when

(01:31:02):
there's when like me, when when when there's when there's
no hope of winning on the horizon, when there are
no good players nobody was talking about, for instance, like
twenty sixteen is a huge year for the franchise. Nobody
talks about it being a big year for bad teams,
but it is a big year. It's a huge year
for this franchise because this year the message has to change.

(01:31:24):
It can no longer be wait. And it would be
great if the message was, dude, we are ready to
win right now. Will that change this year? If the
answer is no, Well then what really?

Speaker 8 (01:31:42):
Then?

Speaker 6 (01:31:43):
What?

Speaker 9 (01:31:45):
Five?

Speaker 2 (01:31:45):
One, three, seven, four nine, fifteen thirty, it's seventeen after
five o'clock. We will take phone calls. Next to ESPN
fifteen thirty, Cincinnati's e it, We're joining us. We've got
NKU basketball tonight on ESPN fifteen thirty with the Norse
trying to break a four game losing streak taking on
Milwaukee Panthers. And tomorrow on ESPN fifteen thirty, it's Kentucky

(01:32:09):
versus Vanderbilt. You could hear the AFC and NFC Conference
championship games, starting with the game in Philly on Saturday,
I'm sorry, on Sunday Sunday, I said, Sunday. Uh, and
then the AFC title tilt in Kansas City. Boath those
games on seven hundred w WELW, Cincinnati's other sports talk station.

(01:32:32):
Let's see Mike, Mike, you're on You're on ESPN fifteen thirty.
Good afternoon, Mike. How are you? I?

Speaker 3 (01:32:38):
Well, I had a little surgery this morning, but it
wasn't that bad.

Speaker 6 (01:32:42):
So got a little pay medicine and so I'm feeling
a little feisty.

Speaker 2 (01:32:48):
Oh I like it.

Speaker 3 (01:32:49):
I like it is.

Speaker 2 (01:32:50):
Every what do do you mind? Do you are? I
don't want to, I want to just the specifics of
the procedure, but I mean, are you okay? Yeah?

Speaker 6 (01:32:58):
Yeah, they just had to a little bit of take
a biopsy on something.

Speaker 3 (01:33:03):
It's got a little harrier than they planned, I think.

Speaker 2 (01:33:06):
So understand what kind of what kind of payments are
you on.

Speaker 3 (01:33:10):
Right now? I'm on some a mild warphem.

Speaker 2 (01:33:16):
Yeah, it's very wonderful, sounds amazing.

Speaker 3 (01:33:20):
It's very work though. That's why people get addicted to it.

Speaker 6 (01:33:24):
Is it a good thing?

Speaker 3 (01:33:24):
You know? Not ultimately, but boy, it sure suits you know.
It's why finding a good closer when you're when you're
losing games.

Speaker 6 (01:33:32):
With the beautiful things, the beautiful thing hebe you see.

Speaker 3 (01:33:39):
Well before that, I got three quickies.

Speaker 2 (01:33:42):
All right, give me some quickies, Mike.

Speaker 6 (01:33:44):
Did you see bus are on these top five most
improved teams? Who are twenty twenty five?

Speaker 2 (01:33:51):
Have you been listening to the show today?

Speaker 3 (01:33:53):
Yeah? I heard the show that I heard Tony Show.
That's why I didn't know if you did or not.

Speaker 2 (01:33:58):
You listen to Tony Show, not mine?

Speaker 3 (01:34:01):
Yeah. I was getting down with the procedure and stuff.
So it was in between a time when Tony Show
and your show, it was only affording that procedures.

Speaker 2 (01:34:12):
Well, well, well, Mike, yeah, we've we've we've we've referenced,
we've referenced the buster only piece multiple times today, Mike,
thank you for paying very close attention.

Speaker 3 (01:34:23):
That's okay, Sorry, sorry, Yeah. Well, the leagues wide open
this year, right with a Damas gone, Devin Williams gone,
Cardinals rebuilding, Cubs, who knows, yeah, Pirates bye bye. This
is the year, buddy, this is the year. If we
don't do it this year, I don't know what's gonna happen. Well,
it is.

Speaker 2 (01:34:41):
I think it is wide open. Uh, I still give
the nod to Milwaukee, but I it doesn't feel like
there's any like any any nationally Central teams. Fans feel
overly confident that their team can can run away and hide.
So I do think it's it's wide open and and
uh but but again, like, is that what we're gonna

(01:35:03):
hang our hat on? Well, the the the division is
wide open, and nobody else has gotten substantially better. Although
I do think the Cubs have done some good things,
nobody has gotten substantially better. And so you know what,
we don't need to get better either, Like I I've
kind of seen that and I don't like it.

Speaker 3 (01:35:18):
No, that that's a problem. Yeah, then they're complacent, a
little too complacent, And that's what your constant grape is
with this team. They're too complacent. The uh the uh
Milwaukee though Adamas was probably their leading run producer, wasn't he?
I believe so he's probably their leading RBI guy if
it wasn't If.

Speaker 2 (01:35:40):
It wasn't dude, well Yelli Yellis missed a huge chunk
of the season, So it was Willia Thomas by by
far and away. Now contrarasts behind the plate had a
really good offensive year, but yeah, Willia Thomas was was
awesome for them.

Speaker 3 (01:35:55):
I'm uh, I'm concerned about you, Seemo, I really am.
I keep wanting to say the season's not is slipping away,
but I think at this point we're falling on the ice.
I don't see them beating BYU tomore Now. I just
see by you nailing those threes and shooting free throws
at some ridiculously high percentage, and I just don't see

(01:36:18):
how we're gonna beat I don't see how we're gonna
beat them.

Speaker 2 (01:36:21):
Well, yeah, I mean it's it's it's a team that
sort of, does you know, number one, top thirty in
offensive efficiency according to Ken Palm, I think sixty six
or sixty seventh in in defensive efficiency according to Ken Pom.
A team that plays at a very very similar pace,
a team that plays in a very tough environment. I

(01:36:41):
want to see how desperate the Bearcats play, because they
they did win those two games that kind of got
the season back on track before they played Texas Tech,
and there were there were some things to like in
both of those victories against Colorado and against Arizona State.
I haven't watched them play desperate now. I've seen, like offensively,
they took some good strides against Texas Tech. But Mike,

(01:37:02):
when you are where the Bearcats are, which you know
if you Today is the first day that I looked
at bracketology, and frankly I looked more to see where
Xavier was. You see still in the conversation right the
first four out and Xavier was next four out. They're
still you know, it's it's January. Tomorrow night is January
twenty fifth. Their goals are still attainable if the goal

(01:37:23):
is to get to the NCAA tournament but at some
point I'd like to see a play with some level
of urgency and desperation that I don't think we saw
against Texas Tech. We didn't see it on the defensive end,
for sure, and I think that's where you're more likely
to see those things. And look, I mean, if you're
glass half full, you go well. They have started to
play a little bit better offensively. Even the Arizona State game,

(01:37:45):
which is the one last weekend, they didn't shoot it well,
but I thought they got better looks. I thought the
offense functioned, and then it was even better against Texas Tech.
They weren't good at making outside shots, but the offense
did execute. If that continues and they can recapture what
they were defensively, then I think they still have a chance.
At the same time, if if we have to wait

(01:38:07):
another couple of weeks for that to happen, the math
is gonna be impossible. It might you might say it's
too much to ask this team to go on the
road and win consecutive games, though I do think they
will beat Utah, you know, I mean, do you want
to have to do the math with them at two
and six in the league, knowing the teams they're gonna
have to play because let's let's be honest, Mike, They're
they're probably not gonna beat Houston, right, they're gonna play

(01:38:29):
a Baylor team that's smacked him by more than twenty points. Uh,
They're they're, they're they're probably not gonna win both games
against West Virginia. They're not gonna beat Iowa State on
the road. So you know, you're kind of crossing off
way too many games when your record is what it is,
which means you're gonna have to go beat the teams
that aren't the ones that I just mentioned. And because

(01:38:51):
you're one in four, I guess I'm sorry, one in
three in the league at home. Now, you gotta go
win some road games. So tomorrow is one of those
such games.

Speaker 3 (01:38:59):
Now, you know, if uk I was kind of looking
at some stature Vanderbilt, there are three and a half
point dog I believe at home. I'm pretty sure that's correct.
I just got Kentucky right for the pick in here,
because it looks like Vanderbilt rebounds the ball pretty well

(01:39:20):
and shoots well at two point shots. Well, I don't
think they're a great three point shooting team, but do
you think Kentucky's right for the picking on.

Speaker 2 (01:39:31):
This one, Well, Vanderbilt beat Tennessee and then came off
of that and played really well. Obviously came off of
that by losing the Alabama. I think Kentucky's right for
the picking against anybody because I don't think they're great defensively.
But I also think they can beat anybody because of
the volume of offensive weapons and how they play. Like,
I don't if you're talking about, like, will they beat Vanderbilt,

(01:39:52):
my guess is yes, I think they have a better
team than Vanderbilt. But if you're like, if you're talking
about them in March, well, they can beat anybody this
field because of what they can do on the offensive end, right,
But you don't trust them because of their issues defensively,
do you?

Speaker 3 (01:40:11):
I have to change it one more time and then
I'll get out of you here.

Speaker 2 (01:40:14):
They're good.

Speaker 3 (01:40:15):
I don't like this Kansas City Chiefs conspiracy theory. They
get all the calls and stuff. Here's my point. Referees
are human beings. They're they're they're supposed to in mechanical
when they call games. I understand that rules regulations. Stick
to your rules and regulations reps, but they're humans.

Speaker 9 (01:40:33):
Now.

Speaker 3 (01:40:33):
When Kansas City comes out and back to back looking
for a threepeat and Reps in their minded, well, well,
this team plays pretty consistent ball and if there's a
questionable call, we're probably going to give it to them.
And I don't know that I can blame them for that.
So I still think they're going to beat the Bills.

Speaker 4 (01:40:53):
I really do.

Speaker 3 (01:40:53):
I think they're going to beat the Bills, and I
think the Commanders are going to moneyline the Eagles.

Speaker 2 (01:40:58):
Yeah, my money's on Washington and I'm taking the points
the Buffalo Kansas City game. I'll be honest with you, Mike.
I go back and forth because I think if we
were to take remove special teams for a second, Kansas
City and Buffalo, the worst unit of the two offenses
and the two defenses, I think is Buffalo's defense. Like

(01:41:19):
people are gonna say, well, Kansas City offensively, they weren't
great this year. They played you know, I use the
word unevenly, and that's true. But of the four main units,
I feel like the weakest is still Buffalos. And so
you could go this Chiefs team has fatal flaws and
at some point they're going to catch up to them,
and that's kind of what I've hung on to all

(01:41:39):
year long. But they are at home this Buffalo. Yeah,
you talk about like teams playing with a lot of pressure.
Kansas City is trying for history. Patrick Mahomes and Andy
Reid and Travis Kelsey and Chris Jones and those guys,
their legacies are safe. They have a comp list what

(01:42:00):
Buffalo wants to accomplished. With the Bills, I think there's
sort of a sense of if not now, then when.
And I don't know that that's going to be a
huge factor in the game, but I think it hovers
over it, and I just I don't know that I
could trust the Bills to get the stops they're going
to need in a game that is likely to be close.

(01:42:21):
So I thought, yeah, I've gone back and forth. I've
gone back and forth on this and I probably will again.
I'll acknowledge this to you. I have wagered on Washington.
I have sat on my hands when it comes to
Bills versus Chiefs.

Speaker 3 (01:42:35):
Yeah. I finally pulled the trigger on the Chiefs yesterday
and this is it. No, I promised. I think the
way to solve the Bengals defensive problem is you call
spags up in Kansas City. You go, look, well, change
the name of the stadium, pay you the naming rights,
will call it bags Field. We'll give you twenty percent
of all the stadium revenues and ten million dollars a year,

(01:42:57):
and then we'll have a good defense.

Speaker 2 (01:43:00):
You want it. You want the Bengals to hire him
as head coach?

Speaker 3 (01:43:04):
No, just coordinating.

Speaker 2 (01:43:07):
Well, I'm I'm I'm sure that the Chiefs would balk
at that. And I'm I'm going to guess I don't
know his contract status. I'm of the guess he's under
contract with Kansas City.

Speaker 3 (01:43:17):
Yeah, I'm just clambling around.

Speaker 2 (01:43:18):
I like Mike, take care, hey, take care of yourself.
Enjoy that pain medication, Do what the nurses and doctors say,
and we'll talk to you next week.

Speaker 3 (01:43:28):
Okay, don't enjoy Utah.

Speaker 2 (01:43:31):
I'm not going, so I don't have to. But I've
been to Utah. You will, I am not. I'm not
making the trip now that they're already out there. I
have I have spent enough. I like Salt Lake City.
I have spent enough time in Provo that I'm I'm good.
I'm I'm okay. So I'll be watching on TV tomorrow.

Speaker 3 (01:43:48):
Worry about your I like the story about your daughter
with the ice cream. That was cool.

Speaker 2 (01:43:52):
Take care of mom, all right, Mike, see you, thank you.
It's uh twenty six away from six o'clock. This is
ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnata Sports Station two sports headlines service
at Kelsey chevrole at home of lifetime powertrain protection and
guaranteed credit approval from their family to yours for life

(01:44:14):
kelseyshev dot com FC Cincinnati a one nil winner. I tried,
I went nil. I gave the proper term one nil
winner over Montreal in a preseason friendly. Andre Tarrilla. For
some reason, I look at this dude's name, which should
be really easy to pronounce, and I can't say. It's
sixteen year old kid. What were you doing when you

(01:44:35):
were sixteen? This dude's scoring goals in Major League Soccer
preseason games. What I was doing when I was sixteen?

Speaker 4 (01:44:43):
I was?

Speaker 2 (01:44:44):
I'd rather not say college basketball. Tonight, NKU is taken
on Milwaukee. That game is going to tip off at
seven o'clock on ESPN fifteen thirty. Norse have lost five
consecutive sorry four can executive games. I'm not let's not
pin another loss on them four consecutive games. Chip all

(01:45:05):
tonight at seven Dayton Battle. Saint Joe's Flyers were awesome
against Ducane on Tuesday, probably at least since the Mount,
well since since the second half against Marquette, but they
fell behind early against Marquette. They played really The Flyers
played really well on Tuesday. Let's just say that. On Saturday,

(01:45:26):
UC versus b y U ten thirty in provo. The
game is on seven hundred WLW. If you are like
looking at this from a metrics perspective, Q one opportunity,
Q one opportunity for the Bearcats another one, and you
know how like Tony Pike and I are. If the
Bearcats win this game, they're back. We're good, We're back.

(01:45:49):
All's good. Bracketology. Let's go. We'll see Q one opportunity.
Xavier coming off a really tough loss on Wednesday against
Saint john We'll host yukon Tomorrow night. Eight o'clock is
your tip off. That game is on the double Nickel
fifty five KRC Kentucky's at Vanderbelt, Miami and Akron tomorrow

(01:46:10):
hookup in a classic battle h in a classic battle
for first place in the Mac RedHawks versus Zips. I
like Travis Steel. Travis Steel. When when Travis Steel was
at Xavier, Look it did not it didn't work. I mean,
I call it what it is, but he was And
even at Miami, we've had Travis on a couple of times.

(01:46:32):
Has been really good to our show and probably should
do it again here soon because his team is having
such a good year. And he came on with us
right after he got let go at Xavier and right
when he got the job at Miami, and and you know,
we kind of made it known like, well we're going
to talk about your new gig, but we're going to
talk about the gig you just left. And he was

(01:46:52):
awesome and could not be friendlier. And so I root
for Travis Steele. And he's got the RedHawks playing really
really well. Behind for Musketeer Cam Krafts fifteen points per
game hockey this evening the Cyclone Skate against Iowa Cyclones
a week from tomorrow. My favorite promotion they do, and
this is kind of a hockey staple, The Teddy Bearit Toss.

(01:47:16):
That's next Saturday. I think it's a day game too.
It's four o'clock game. Tonight though they play at seven
point thirty. So there you go. I mean on the Bearcats,
Like the math is starting to get the math is
starting to get tough.

Speaker 3 (01:47:32):
You know.

Speaker 2 (01:47:33):
The baseline, the base that we the baseline that we
establish every year is well in a power league is
finish five hundred, and they're going to be a tournament team.
And I believe that. Now. Look, there have been schools
from power for Power five conferences that have gotten to
the tournament despite having a below five hundred league record,

(01:47:54):
and there's probably gonna be more because of the outsized
size of the league. But all right, so let's just
say it's ten and ten. To get to ten and ten,
they have to go eight and five the rest of
the way, eight and five the rest of the way. Now,
let's be honest. They're gonna be big underdogs on the
road against Iowa State and on the road against Houston.

(01:48:17):
They're gonna be underdogs on the road against West Virginia.
They might be underdogs at home against West Virginia. They
still have to play Baylor, who beat them badly, Kansas
State who beat them. Like you might say those aren't
great teams, but like you've got to figure out a
way to win eight out of thirteen starting tomorrow to

(01:48:40):
get to five and that's to get to five hundred
in the league. And by the way, if they do that,
I think they're gonna be in the dance. Okay, fine,
but if you lose tomorrow, now you gotta go eight
and four the rest of the way. And from a
profile perspective, you know, BYU and Cincinnati are not very dems.
Bearcats are forty fourth Ken Palm BYU forty eight. I

(01:49:03):
think two spots separate them in the net rankings, which
I would give you if my computer wasn't acting up.
So you know, we did it on Tuesday, talked about like, well,
massive game, you gotta win your home games if you
don't have to make up ground on the road. Well,
they've played three road games in the league. They've won one.
So if you're not gonna win your home games, you
gotta win your road games. Get these next two and

(01:49:26):
then you know, we'll talk about where they go from there.
But the math is getting tough for the Bearcats. I
mentioned I don't bracketology. If you're a college basketball fan,
bracketology is part of the fun. And like I watch
sports and I love sports because they're fun. So I'm
here for anything that's fun. I think at times we
obsess over bracket projections so much that we kind of

(01:49:49):
don't talk about the actual basketball part of this, and
so I I think it's fun to look at the
hypothetical matchups and see, you know, if the consensus is
that this team is in and this team is out.
When you get to a certain point, I've joked for
years like at ten point thirty on Super Bowl Sunday
is when I start looking at bracketology because that's when

(01:50:11):
a lot of folks kind of flipped the page, and
you know, usually from that point forward, you're five or
six weeks away from selection Sunday. I look today, I'm
just curious woul the Bearcats be inner out? And I
use Lenardi he is the best known one. He's not
when it comes to a percentage of correct bracket picks,

(01:50:32):
He's not the best that's well established. But I just
I was on ESPN site. I was looking at the
Buster Ony piece on the Reds and I just wanted
to see where Joe had him. He had the Bearcats
wanted the last four out. Not worth getting mad about,
not worth getting excited about I'm more concerned about the
basketball part of it, and so I spend less time
on bracketology. But I wanted to see today and mainly

(01:50:54):
I wanted to see does he even have Xavier on
the page? Xavier he has as being one of the
next four out, which makes sense. So it tells you
these teams they're in a very large group. Like as
college basketball fans, we had times make it about our team, art, teams, metrics,
our team's Q one wins, our team's bad losses. The

(01:51:17):
reality is we've The term bubble was popularized in the
late eighties because there's so many teams on it, and
the Bearcats are one and the Musketeers, so a lot
of teams that in late January have a similar profile.
What can you do to separate yourself a little bit?
Xavier can separate itself a little bit by beating Yukon.

(01:51:38):
What can you do to separate like, there are still
bids to be taken. Neither of these teams has done.
But from a basketball perspective, first of all, Xavier's got
to get Daylan swayin on the floor. They have to
continue to improve defensively, and you see if they're better
offensively great, we cannot see a defensive performance like the
one we saw against Texas Tech and quite frankly, like
we saw against Baylor. So there are bids to be had,

(01:52:02):
but the math is getting more and more tricky with
every subsequent loss. And I you know, Rick Browing wrote
this on musketeer report dot com. There was a lot
to really feel good about if you're a Xavier fan. Yes,
you hate to blow a sixteen point lead, Yes you
got a tough whistle and it's not the first time,
and yes you hate to lose Dalen Swain and the
uncertainty that comes with that. But this team is better.

(01:52:24):
This team has gotten better and it has improved, and
a lot of that improvement did play itself out. If
the Xavier team that played against Saint John shows up tomorrow,
have a very good chance of winning that game with U. See,
there are parts of the team that you see improvement from,
but there's still they're still just not enough that you
really trust. Maybe that changes tomorrow. In Provo thirteen Away

(01:52:49):
from six. This is ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports.

Speaker 1 (01:52:52):
Station Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty. Traffic from the UC Health traffics.

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(01:53:22):
right shoulder and on northbound Springfield like another accident approaching
Congress Avenue on at Ezelic with traffic.

Speaker 2 (01:53:30):
It was like a time like five six years ago.
I'm like any business cards and I got them in
Staples and they're really nice. Never used them. Nobody asked
for a radio host business card. They can, I have
your business card. So nice cards. They didn't cost that much,
but they're collecting dust in my basement. Taron Bland works
very hard on this show, and so I said to

(01:53:51):
him this morning, Hey, can you grab some audio from
the Bengals Booth podcast with Dan Horde and a new
Bengals defensive coordinator. Al And Tarren said yes, I will
do that, and so we did. I don't want Terrence
worse Terrence worse Terren's work to go for nought and
and let's be honest, if you have listened to any

(01:54:12):
amount of this show today, I think you'll agree that
listening to Al Golden beats listening to anything that I have.
And so here is Al Golden with Dan Horde talking
about what he looks for when evaluating defensive talent.

Speaker 4 (01:54:27):
I think football IQ is really important. You know, I
always say, like, it's pretty easy to see guys that
are outstanding on tape. You can look at them and
see that they're they're just different athletically. But what's going
to endure in this locker room and in the NFL
in general is the process?

Speaker 2 (01:54:48):
Right?

Speaker 3 (01:54:48):
You know?

Speaker 4 (01:54:48):
Do they have a process? Are they jim rats? Do
they love being around the film room? Are they are
they hanging around the weight and where it's trying to
get extras stretching and things of that nature. What's their
football IQ like? You know, are they audible? Are they demonstrative?
You know? Did they lead their defense? You know, if
you're looking at linebackers, did you run your defense? It's

(01:55:09):
really important safety communication. Those are just some of the things.
I mean, I can go on and on, but I
think Ultimately, you know you have you have to have one,
you know, a bunch of guys that are confident, that
are that we're leaders in their organization, that are verbal
and can solve problems on the grass because the way
offenses these days a lot of you know, you can't

(01:55:29):
have the perfect call. You got to get us into
a call that everybody's on the same page and we
can operate as one.

Speaker 2 (01:55:35):
Got to be able to operate as one. That's Al
Golden chatting with Dan Horde on the Bengals Booth podcast. Obviously,
the Bengals need more of a pass rush, so here's
Al answering Dan's question about adding pass rushers being a priority.

Speaker 4 (01:55:51):
Always. Always, if you have an offense that scores and
you could take the ball away and be good in
the red zone and be good on third down, you know,
you hope you're playing with the lead a lot, and
if you're playing with the lead, you got to have
pass rushers and and that that that doesn't just mean
the four down. Pass rushers can come from anywhere. In

(01:56:12):
terms of the linebacker group, longer linebackers, guys that can
move to the edge or move around and give us
rushes anywhere. But it's all about finding the matchups that
you need on third down and and obviously make making
sure that everybody that contributes on defense is doing what
they do best.

Speaker 2 (01:56:29):
You know what you don't want is you don't want
people trying to do too much. I think Al would
agree with that, and if not, oh well we're not
going to get a chance to play the last cut.
So if you want to hear Al answered Dan's question
about what is base defense is, go listen to the

(01:56:51):
Bengals Booth podcast again on the iHeartRadio app. And while
you're there, re listen to this show and others you
might have missed, and all of our awesome interviews and
segments and more. We are done. Thanks to Tarren Bland
for producing, Thanks to you for listening. Have a great weekend,
and we'll talk to you Monday at three oh five

(01:57:12):
on you. Bending and Contorting this weekend, Bending and Contorting
all weekend long on ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati Sports Station

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